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Italians net World Tour Finals bronze

Hamburg, Germany, August 27, 2017 - European champions Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai of Italy recovered from a semifinal setback to win the bronze medal here Sunday at the $800,000 Swatch Beach Volleyball FIVB World Tour Finals presented by Vodafone by defeating Piotr Kantor and Bartosz Losiak of Poland.

Seeded fifth in the 12-team event being played for the third-straight year at the end of the international beach volleyball season, Lupo and Nicolai posted a 2-1 (21-17, 19-21, 15-12) win in 50 minutes over the sixth-seeded Kantor and Losiak.

In tying the head-to-head FIVB World Tour meetings with the Polish pair at 2-2, Lupo and Nicolai split the $50,000 third-place prize while Kantor and Losiak shared $35,000 finish fourth. The first Italian victory was at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games where Lupo and Nicolai had to win the match to advance to the elimination rounds. That success led to their silver medal finish on Copacabana.

In Sunday morning's semifinal matches, Lupo and Nicolai were defeated by Evandro Goncalves/Andre Loyola of Brazil in 41 minutes while Kantor and Losiak were dropping a decision to Americans Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena in 37 minutes.